by Arif Islamzade
Photography by Oleg Litvin

Skies are bright and blue these
days in Sumgayit. Especially on Sundays. In fact, it's almost
impossible to believe that this city, so beautifully situated
on the Caspian, is home to one of the largest chemical industrial
complexes in the entire former USSR. Insane concentrations of
chemicals were produced in Sumgayit. Environmentally, it's a
death zone for the people who live and work here, with no exaggeration.
But it's impossible to close all the plants because of the devastating
economic impact it would have on the country.

But skies are clear these days-not because there have been sweeping
environmental reforms; only 20% of the 33 factories are operating.
Almost all of them have come to a complete standstill because
the interconnective fabric of the former Soviet Union has been
severed between the Republics. For lack of a very simple part-a
screw from one Republic, a bolt from another, some raw material
from another, an entire factory employing thousands can be shut
down. It's happening to hundreds and thousands of factories all
across the former Soviet Union.

Proud of Sumgayit

This autumn, Sumgayit, Baku's
satellite city, celebrates its 50th anniversary. In 1939, it
had a population of 6,000; today there are 350,000 including
62,000 refugees. Azerbaijanis are proud of this city. They built
it with their own hands during this century shaping it into one
of the largest industrial complexes in the Soviet Union. They're
proud of their highly trained chemists. They appreciate its ethnic
mix-Azerbaijanis, Russians, Georgians, Jews, Udins, Lezghins,
Moldovians, Ukrainian, Belarussians, Kurds, Talysh and Armenian
(an estimated 200 still live in the city today according to the
mayor).

It was easier to get housing in Sumgayit than in other major
cities, a strong card for attracting young people from the villages
and smaller towns. And the money was good-factory workers make
more than doctors. (For example, an aluminum factory worker makes
the equivalent of US$10-14 a month these days).

Sumgayit has the greatest concentration of petro-chemical
production in the former Soviet Union. Photo: June 1994.

Paradise Really Hell

Azerbaijanis considered Sumgayit
a Paradise, unaware that it was really hell. Some of the chemicals
they produced are known carcinogens, especially the chlororganic
products such as hexochlorine, DDT, Lindane, and caustic sodium.
Others injure the heart, internal organs, bones, and teeth. Others
suppress the immune system. A permanent sharp-smelling substance
hovers in the air irritating nose and eyes. Many chemicals clearly
cause severe birth defects and embryotoxic effects. During the
Soviet Period, the severity of the pollution was never made public.
Health officials never released true statistics. The government
used to compensate workers by providing milk, cheese, and meat
to those at factories where toxicity was known to be high. Even
today, workers in certain factories, such as the aluminium factory,
are required to retire after ten years' work because the conditions
are so detrimental.

Hazardous solid wastes from tube rolling plant dumped close
to residential area in Sumgayit. Photo: June 1994.

Dumping Wastes

Nobody used to pay attention
to ecology. When the city was designed 50 years ago, a buffer
zone was built between the industrial and residential sections.
It's one kilometer wide; to be environmentally safe, there should
be a minimum distance of twelve kilometers.

The emphasis was only on producing from raw materials; and then
simply dumping the wastes-into the air, into the sea and onto
garbage heaps. When the factories were fully operational, an
estimated 70 to 120,000 tons of harmful wastes were released
into the air each year.

Less than one third of industrial sewage was directed to the
town's dilapidated purifying sites. The majority of the sewage
simply was dumped into the sea unprocessed, causing the Caspian
shoreline to be turned into a biologically "dead zone"
extending 20-25 km into the fishing regions.

Factories generated over 300,000 tons of solid wastes of 64 different
types; only 170,000 tons are actually utilized. The remaining
130 thousand tons were partially discarded in special furnaces,
transported to the city dump as consumer wastes, or left lying
around in the yards of factories. The city dump takes 250,000
tons of consumer wastes every year. The country can't finance
the waste recycling factory that has already been approved to
be constructed.

Testing industrial sewerage in Sumgayit. Photo: 1993.

Hazards Unknown

Scientists know the effect these
separate chemicals can have on human beings. But when it comes
to the chemicals being mixed together, they don't have a clue.
Alone some of these gases may not even be dangerous but combined
with other chemicals in the atmosphere, the soil, or water, they
may become highly toxic. How dangerous they are simply is not
known. Some of the processes themselves are hazardous such as
smelting and electrolysis which produces strong magnetic fields.

The Baby Cemetery

The Sumgayit cemetery reveals
the tragic story that was hidden so long during the Soviet period.
Dead babies don't lie. This may well be the only cemetery in
the world that has an entire section set apart for children.
Lots of people don't know about it. Down in the south corner,
there amidst the tall overgrown grasses, you've find hundreds
and hundreds of graves, mostly unmarked and unnamed. The only
identification is a pile of earth heaped up with small slabs
of stones on top to prevent the wind from blowing the dirt away.
The few grave stones that do exist almost always indicate deformity
and retardation on the child's portrait.

Sumgayit has a high percentage of babies born premature, stillborn,
and with genetic defects: Photo: June 1994.

The doctors and nurses in the
maternity hospitals will tell you the same thing. They see it
every day-a high percentage of deaths. On average 27 out of 1,000
born don't survive the first year (a good rate would be less
than 10 as in Japan) There's a high rate of aborted fetuses and
still births and a considerable number of birth defects such
as Mongolism, anencephalia (no brain), spina bifida (absence
of one or more vertebra arches), hydrocephalus (enlarged head
with excessive mount of fluid), osteochandro dystrophy (bone
disease), and mutations such as club feet, cleft palate, four
or six fingers or toes. Once a child was born with its heart
on the right side. Nowadays, compared even with last year, doctors
are seeing more children born with more than one defect. Approximately
62% of the babies are born with asphyxia. At this writing there
were 43 babies in the nursery at the Maternity Hospital; ten
of which were premature; they had only three incubators to sustain
them.
Most mothers show evidence of chronic heart disease and anemia
and have low counts of hemoglobin.

The medical profession knows there's a strong relationship between
the tragic birth rate and the ecology; they just haven't had
a chance to really research and quantify it. They don't know
for sure, for example, which chemicals are most harmful. They
haven't had an ambulance for this 150 bed clinic since 1990;
they often run out of antibiotics as they are dependent on humanitarian
agencies to donate them now that the economy is so bad. They
can offer no pain killers to the mothers during delivery. Patients
have to provide their own.

Revolutionary Changes
Needed

Some changes have been made;
revolutionary changes are needed. Environmentalists have managed
to get a few factories closed including the Lindane factory.
Workers are no longer permitted to grow little vegetable plots
at some factory grounds where the pollution is considered so
toxic. In some factories pregnant women are allowed to go on
leave or to transfer out to less dangerous work.
The situation requires serious changes and huge capital investments,
without which solutions are nearly impossible. The UNIDO (United
Nations Industrial Development Organization) is now drafting
a city plan for Sumgayit for restructuring the entire chemical
sector. They're hoping to find a balance between ways to protect
human health but yet produce industrially.

Some believe the real solution lies in converting the plants
into other technologies such as producing machinery, equipment
building, electronics, robot technology. Until then, Sumgayit
remains Azerbaijan's most critical environmental problem.

Arif Islamzadeh is a university-trained environmentalist
who serves as Head Counselor on Ecological Problems to Sumgayit's
Mayor.

1 Used in rubber production, produces
a narcotic effect on workers who get "intoxicated"
from working around it.

2 Also produced by mercury (quick silver)
method.

3Produced in Azerbaijan until 1981 and used even
later although a resolution of the Vienna Convention had banned
its use in 1965.

4Similar to Agent Orange used in Vietnam. Because
of its extremely toxic effect on workers, the factory was closed
although the Soviet Government resisted for a long time as they
had paid the French $24M for it.